Lunch Carts and Dining Cars


5/8/2024 • 6 months ago

Screenshot of the Lunch Carts and Dining Cars interactive map showing blue points for locations and black and white historic photos

Explore the map tour of diner locations in Cambridge, MA.
Once plentiful, none of the portable dining cars remain.

From the earliest horse-drawn lunch carts to the streamlined stainless steel cars, diners were once plentiful in Cambridge. But where did they all go? Some diners moved into brick and mortar locations and others relocated to other towns. The recent Food Truck trend appears to be a revival of the portable dining car, but they don't offer the seating and table service of yesterday. Enjoy this tour of diner photos and share your diner memories with us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov.